The scale and scope of doing business online is growing at an exponential rate over the last decade and any one not leveraging e-commerce for their business is losing precious revenue to competitors. The goal of any ecommerce business is to set up a digital storefront, to sell products and services over the internet.
We have complied few advisory checklist points for any business starting their online store as they step into this highly competitive field.
- Clear Design for Search and Navigation: For any ecommerce site offering a large selection of products and services, a clear navigation and search is very important. Your customers are liable to take their business elsewhere if they can’t find their desired product easily and quickly.
- Showcase Products: A customer is easily attracted to a well featured product, so a well-designed and placed showcase area is an essential part of your digital storefront. One must constantly customize their showcase according to trends and by researching what their customers are looking for.
- Mobile Ecommerce: Small businesses need to make sure their sites are optimized so that customers can view them on any type of handheld mobile device. It is called a responsive design. This seamless browsing, saving, and shopping across platforms is a crucial requirement for business growth in near future.
- Reviews and Testimonials: Any customer coming to your site will be more swayed by the testimonials and reviews by your prior customers. A prominent display of reviews and testimonials about your services and products will get you more sales. Engage your customers on Social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Ask for their reviews and endorsement on products they have used or generate precious feedback on how to improve your offerings.
- Easy and Clear Checkout: According to surveys by top search engines including Google, yahoo! & Bing, 65% of shopping carts are abandoned at checkout stage due to various reasons. Of the top ten reasons 6 are due to confusing check out pages and elements relating to that. Check out popular ecommerce sites such as Mygeardog.com before you set up your checkout page.
- After Sales Services and Faster Delivery: Online customers have a lot of option now a days, so After Sales Services and support will go a long way in gaining customer loyalty. Small distribution companies can be engaged to offer customers free or faster shipping.
- Go Global: If you are not providing a localized service, go global and leverage the potential of your ecommerce website by catering to a massive consumer base all over the world.
While this is not an exhaustive list of all the things you need for a successful ecommerce site but the essentials that we believe will help you. We would love to hear what ecommerce trends will you take into consideration for your business?
